


The Black Bull

by Vesperchan



Series: Tumblr Shorts [17]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Sakura, Based on a Tumblr Post, Beauty and the Beast Elements, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy AU, MadaSaku Week, MadaSaku Weekend, Magic, Red String of Fate, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, Tumblr Prompt, and i'm tired, it's good, sakura has a SWORD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21995359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Based on the classic Scottish fairytale The Black Bull of Norroway.Sakura is a little girl who finds out her soulmate is a black bull and not the easiest creature to love, but she's not one to let glass mountains or demons keep her from following her heart.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Madara
Series: Tumblr Shorts [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1228031
Comments: 42
Kudos: 385





	The Black Bull

**Author's Note:**

> Anon from Tumblr: For the writing prompt if you feel inspired! Moda Operandi series, the eleventh dress (with the flowers and vines). I get nature/fairy vibes. MadaSaku :)

All the motherless girls in her village went to Baba’s house to learn housekeeping, and those with enough favor stayed to practice another skilled craft, but the most favored of all were taught her magic ways. In this manner did Sakura and two other motherless girls, both older than here by several years, come to learn the ways of simple magic.

When Baba grew too old to see the end of her nose she sent out all the girls except her favorites, saying that with her last days she would spin their red threads of fate for them. In this manner did the old woman gather the wool, dye it red with her blood, spin it on a wheel, and braid it three times over for each of the girls. 

When she was done she tied the string around each girl’s pinky and told them their threads of fate had been tugged, and who was meant for them would feel it. Whoever comes to their gate to inquire about the ‘nagging magic’ was for them and they should go without complaint. 

Each of the girls had their reservations, but after the first night when a handsome prince in a carriage pulled by four white horses arrived to inquire after Konan, those reservations evaporated like a dream. The next night a famous knight on a strong bay steed and wearing silver armor came to call on Ino and inquire about the nagging magic that drew him to her door. 

Another night came and went without Sakura’s suitor, but she dreamed madly in anticipation. On the fourth morning there was a visitor at her gate inquiring about the ‘nagging magic’ he felt coming from her home. But when Sakura ran to greet him, she found no noble prince or gallant knight. A large, black bull with four curling red horns that matched his pinwheel eyes stood at her gate, towering over the edge with his abnormal size. 

“It came from me,” Sakura weakly admitted, showing off the red yarn tied to her pinky finger. “But I do not know how it would come to you, good sir.” 

As fearful as Sakura was, she knew she could not go against the last of her baba’s magic and reject her suitor. To go back on such magic would be disastrous no matter how frightening the bull appeared.

The bull leaned over her fence and sniffed at the red thread on her finger, recognizing the magic for what it is. “It seems I must claim you. If you’ll have me, your father will never be in want of meat for the rest of his days and I will always offer you the first of my bread so long as you dine at my table.” 

So close Sakura could see the cuts and scars that decorated his face, neck, and body. He was a massive creature that was as old as he was powerful. 

“Please let me bid my father goodby and we’ll be off,” Sakura weakly answered. 

* * *

Too young to have left the village on her own, Sakura had little in the way of worldly possessions and even fewer words for her father, who bid her farewell with all the stiffness of a log. It wasn’t long before she was off with the black bull, donning a traveling cloak that had enough rabbit fur in the hood to keep her neck and ears warm when the winds got cold enough. 

“You never gave me your name, girl,” the bull chuffed while on the road. 

“You never gave me yours, sir.”

The bull chuckled, shaking his massive head before bending it low enough that his eye was level with her face. “I am Madara Uchiha. You will dine in my brother’s house tonight where the fire is warm enough even for your little hands.”

“Thank you, Ma-da-ra,” she answered, stumbling over his name. “I am Sakura Haruno.”

“You will not be a Haruno long, but it would be poor of me to give you my name before you are of age for it.” 

“I’m of age to marry, sir.” 

It was hard to see the expressions on his face, but Madara looked disgruntled by the comment. “Even so, you are young and will be cared for by my house until you are of age in the ways of my people. I am a beast, but I am no monster. It’s terrible enough you be bound to a creature you’ll never suit, worse be it that you not have the freedoms of your youth.”

Sakura nodded slowly, thinking of the girls her age or younger who were taken into new homes and made mothers after their first bloods. Madara’s generosity was unfamiliar but not unwelcome. No matter what he looked like, he seemed kind underneath it all. 

“There are worse things than marrying a beast, at least you’re not a monster.”

Sakura heard Madara make a sound that might have been a laugh, if only she could recognize his quirks and expressions better. It seemed too unusual to believe; she was finally walking away from home with someone who would become her new family and all that to say nothing about him being a bull instead of a man.

“So, I suppose you’re what they call a soulmate,” she began, voice soft and ready to break if he rebuked her harshly. “Did you know that was what you were following?” 

“I did not.”

Sakura waited for him to explain further, but when there was only silence she chanced another glance his way to gauge his reaction before speaking up again. “What _did_ it feel like to you? Baba didn’t tell us what it would be like for you, only that it’d be funny.”

Madara took another deliberate step across a dip in the packed earth road and huffed. “Funny.”

“You don’t like to talk very much, do you?”

“It...is not my habit...no.” 

Sakura saw the way he glanced down at her, straining his pinwheel red eye to get a better look at her without moving his head, as if he didn’t want her to know he was looking at her. When he saw her staring up at him already he set his gaze back on the road ahead of them, winding casually into the woodlands between settlements. 

The sun dipped behind the trees, casting cut off shadows in the shapes of leaves and branches across the roadway. When Sakura passed under them the shapes made a pattern on her face and clothes, but when Madara passed under them, he seemed to swallow the shadows up. 

They traveled on in silence for a while longer before Sakura noticed the distance. The road was unfamiliar and old, one she didn’t recognize even though she had been to other towns south of her own and used the same road. They had traveled much further than she first assumed but her feet did not hurt. 

“How far are we from your brother’s house, sir?” Sakura asked, using her voice for the first time in hours. Her words cracked and came out sounding dry. 

The sound seemed to startle Madara, almost as if he had forgotten she was there or that she could speak. He stopped and turned enough of his body that he could bend his head down to her level and lean close-careful to keep his horns away from her face. 

“You are thirsty, little one.”

“I suppose so,” Sakura answered, voice small and tight as she realized the truth in his observation. 

Baba had warned her about this sort of thing, how using magic would make her numb in her own body. Maybe that's why her feet didn’t hurt. When Sakura looked down she saw her shoes were dusty and caked with mud but there was also blood peaking through, staining the edges. 

Madara leaned down and dug his hoof deep through the dirt and dust, gouging out a gash in the roadside. When he stepped back Sakura could smell the honey water that welled up in the gash.

“Drink,” he urged her. 

Sakura knelt by the side and bent her hands into the water, cupping it to carry to her lips. It was sweeter than she could have asked for and warm enough to massage the sore parts of her throat. Like honey tea, she drank from the waters and felt it healing her throat. 

“Thank you,” she said over her hands. 

Madara huffed and then dug at the earth again, this time with his opposite hoof. He dragged his heel long through the road and when he pulled away the smell of buttered braid-bread and melting cheese assaulted Sakura’s scenes. Her stomach lurched with want and she dove for the food, attacking it with a hunger she hadn’t known she had. 

“You are hungry,” he commented distantly from over her shoulder, watching her eat up the rich food she had never had the money to enjoy so freely. “You did not say.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t…”Sakura paused to chew what was left of the food in her mouth and swallow it down. “I hadn’t realized until I spelled the food and drank the water. 

“That is not good. You must tell me when you hunger and when you thirst.” he pawed at the ground again but not enough to dig up a hole in the road, only to show his agitation. 

“I will,” Sakura promised, melted cheese sticking to her chin as she wiped with the back of her wrist. “Thank you.”

Madara drew closer and then knelt in the dirt, bending his knees under him to sit. “Madara. You may call me by name, no matter what anyone else says to address me. I think...I should like it if you were to do that.”

Sakura tried his name once in her head before voicing it aloud, to see how it sounded with her voice. When he heard her his tail flicked and his ears rotated attentively. 

“You asked earlier when we would reach my brother’s house,” he said before she could say his name again. “I will take us there before nightfall, but you will not walk there any further. When you have finished and taken your fill climb up onto my back and rest there. I should not have made you walk as far as I had.” 

Sakura glanced down at her bloody shoes again. “I should have said something. You wouldn’t have known.”

Madara lowered his face, sniffing at the dust and avoiding her eyes. “I smelled the blood, btu I did not know it was yours.”

“I don’t think you’re very used to being around other humans, are you?” Sakura guessed. 

“I have many brothers.”

“That wasn’t really an answer.”

When he turned his face away Sakura called him by name and watched the way it made him flinch. His tail flicked and his ears twitched, but he turned back towards her slowly to meet her gaze with his. The red wheels in his eyes spun in agitation. 

“I can.. not answer you some things. I do not mean to be deceptive,” he finally admitted. 

Sakura reached out with her hand and touched the soft velvet of his nose, tracing its edges before pulling her hand back. The static of her weak magic meeting his was like a raindrop running next to an ocean. More than just his magic, there were layers there, layers from ages and ancestors both alive and dead. She didn’t understand all of what that meant, but she had an idea. 

“I think I understand. Baba told us about curses and why people stuck in them can’t speak of such things while enchanted. I’ll still be curious and maybe I’ll ask things I shouldn’t, but I won’t get angry at you for lying to me if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“It is not...something I can control,” he finally admitted. 

“I understand.”

Madara rested his head on the ground so that he had to look up at Sakura through his lashes. The red wheels in his eyes spun a little lazier, fixated on her. “I won’t let you ever go thirsty again.”

“Okay.” 

“I’ll never let you go hungry again.”

Sakura laughed but nodded. “Thank you.”

“I’ll never let your body hurt like this again.” He nosed gently at her feet and it made Sakura chuckle. His breath tickled. 

“I hear you,” she giggled. 

Madara’s ears twitched as he watched her, eyes spinning faster than before. “I’ll be good to you, so please don’t… leave me.”

Sakura held up her hand with the red still still bowed around her pinky. “I won’t.” 

* * *

As instructed, Sakura climbed atop Madara’s back and he took her deeper into the woods, traversing ten steps of the average man with one of his. 

In short work they were out of the woods and crossing vast green ways before a new forest blocked out the sun. There, in the forest, a lonely road led to a small collection of houses and shops, built up around a castle set in the center of the town.

At the gates they were greeted fondly and Madara led her into the magnificent halls to where his brother and his wife welcomed them. Sasuke and Karin took Sakura to their table and feasted with her for a total of seven such days. 

The music and drink warmed her heart as well as her belly, but when the noon day sun peaked on the eight day Madara was ready to depart again, to visit his second brother, one older than Sasuke by seven years. 

“Before you go take this, so that in your time of need you may be blessed by our house,” Karin urged Sakura while Sasuke nodded in solidarity. 

Into her hands they pressed a glittering golden pear that shimmered.

Sakura mounted Madara’s back and rode with him through the forests and up the trailing mountains until daylight was thin and they were at the gates of another fine city with a fortress at its center. Madara’s second brother greeted Sakura warmly and sat her at his table while the hall filled with song and story. Actors ran up and down the tables, crying out about a curse and a devil and the strength it took to win them over. At the end the beauty kissed the beast before the rose could wilt and they ran off together, man and woman.

“You have insufferable tastes as always,” Madara grumbled from where he lounged at the end of the banquet table.

“I thought they sounded lovely,” Sakura tried to encourage. 

“I should hope they have some secondary means of earning an income,” Madara mumbled, ducking his head and looking away while Sakura giggled. 

From his seat Itachi watched his brother and the girl who would one day be his wife. 

Better off than Sasuke, Itachi hosted Sakura and his brother for a month, insisting on extending their stay even longer, but Madra claimed they needed to move on to visit the last of his three brothers.

“Out of all of your brothers you’ll favor Izuna the most, that hasn’t changed,” Itachi cooly teased before turning to Sakura.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” she said over a curtsy. 

When she rose again Itachi had a jeweled plumb in his hand, extended to her. “Take this, and save it for the second great need in your life.” He pressed it into her hands and laid his fingers atop hers to keep the fruit covered. 

“We must go,” Madara interrupted, nipping at Sakura’s dress to drag her away from Itachi. 

Sakura blustered about being rude but Madara grumbled with his head bent, unwilling to apologize to Itachi until she was on his back.

In a day Madara had scaled the mountain and taken her down it’s side again, guiding her to the docks of a watery village that smelled of sun and salt. The castle was far larger than the previous two, no doubt due to the prosperity of its docks and merchants. 

More than the other brothers, Sakura could sense Madara’s eagerness to meet up with the last and closest of his kin. Izuna was only a few years younger than Madara, while the others were nearly a decade shy.

“I think you’re excited,” Sakura said, reaching down to scratch at his skull behind his ear. When he chuffed gratefully she giggled. 

“What makes you say that?” 

“I can just tell.”

“Oh really?” Madara teased back. “I don’t believe you.” 

“It’s true, woman’s intuition.”

“Sakura, you’re fourteen, you’re a child.”

Sitting on his back Sakura was in perfect range to smack the back side of his skull lightly enough to let him know she was annoyed but not upset. “Hush. Maybe I am still a child, but I’m the _only_ child that knows you so well and I know you’re excited.”

“Maybe,” he finally conceded as the palace gates broke open for them. 

Izuna was tall with long black hair braided down to his hips in a thick braid with eyes just as black. When he saw Madara at his gates he ran for his brother, golden slippers slapping the white flagstone until he was down in the courtyard where Sakura slid free in time to see their reunion. 

And while Sasuke hosted them a week and Itachi a month, Izuna opened his doors to the pair of them for half a year before it was time for Madara to move on with Sakura.

“Are you going home?” Izuna asked worriedly. It was their last day and he fretted like it was the departure of his first born babe. 

“I will endeavor to,” Madara answered plainly. 

“Where is home?” Sakura asked, but neither brother answered her.

Instead Izuna looked her way and spared a pained expression before producing from his robes a ruby studded apple that he pressed into her hands. “Your road will be longer still if my brother takes you home, but take this with you and save it for the third great need in your life.”

“You can’t answer me either?” Sakura asked.

Izuna shook his head sadly before pinching at her cheek. “There is a reason only _one_ of us brothers came to be a black bull. I’ve never been lucky enough to be blessed with a soul mate so I shan’t risk evils by speaking of what I must not.”

“A soul mate?” Sakura breathed, glancing to her pinky where the red bow still stood out. “What does that have to-”

“It’s time to go,” Madara interrupted. “Are you ready?” 

Izuna baked away, pressing a finger to his lips and it was enough for Sakura to know she should press no further. Instead, she curtsied prettily and then turned to climb atop Madara’s back, pocketing the ruby apple along with the jeweled plum and golden pear. 

Madara turned from the port city and its castle where Izuna watched from the towers until the distance between them was too vast. 

They traversed wetlands and river towns, forests and grasslands, until they were at the edge of a valley that dazzled impossibly. Sakura held her breath when she saw the world in front of her was built out of impossible glass. Whole mountains and hills rose up on the other side of the valley, sparkling in the sun while stalks of glass flowers chimed in the air. 

“What is this place?” Sakura asked in a hushed exhale. 

“It is the glass valley and the way between where we are and where I mean to go. Has your baba told you of this place?” 

“No...I don’t think so. Is it the same as the golden hills and the glass hills that the woodcarver has to traverse in the stories.”

“Stories still hold some truth, but it is not exactly so. You did well to remember the words of your wise woman. It is here where I must face off against a demon. I will leave you for a time but you must not move from where I place you, otherwise I won’t be able to find you when I return.”

Sakura grabbed for the short hair of Madara’s back. “A demon? What do you mean you’re going to fight a demon?”

“I won’t lose,” Madara grumbled proudly. 

“You could be hurt.” 

Sakura slid off his back and ran around to grab his face, one hand on either side of his velvet muzzle to keep him still. Madara didn’t move as she held him, but the wheels of red in his eyes began to spin lazily, as if woken up from a long sleep. He pushed his face into her hands and huffed again. 

“I will take you home, I promise. I won’t lose and I will not be hurt too terribly this time,” he said.

“How can you say something like that?”

“I’ve got a reason to win this time.” He moved his muzzle just enough to bite at her finger, gently pulling at the red string around her pinky. He pulled it free and drew it back, nodding at her. “Tie it to my horn, and I will not fail.” 

Sakura made a noise of distress but took the yarn form his teeth and moved to knot it around one of his meaner looking horns. It looked beautiful, the same color as his eyes. 

“I don’t want you to leave me. Please, can’t you take me with you without having to fight this demon?” she asked, kissing the side of his face. 

“It is too dangerous and you are too smart to not know that, my dear.”

She had known nothing but the comfort from Madara for over half a year, and as intimidated as she once had been at the prospect of sharing a soul mate with an enchanted creature, now she couldn’t imagine her life without him. He was kind and soft and good to her. He never asked her for anything but to know how best he could please her. On the long roads he listened to her silly stories and told her his own. She had never been so close with another soul before and the thought of possibly losing Madara was more than she was willing to imagine. 

“I didn’t leave my home for heartache, you have to come back to me,” Sakura whispered into his neck, throwing her arms around him.

Madara chuckled darkly. “Are you sure of that? If I died you’d be free to marry a nicer man, one with two legs and hands to hold you.”

“I don’t care for such things.”

“You’re a child now, but when you are a woman you will think differently. You’ll want a husband you can hold, a husband who can give you children.” Madara nuzzled closer to her. “Sakura...I need to do this.” 

Sakura closed her eyes, squeezing them tight. She could read the in betweens of what Madara told her. He hadn’t told her outright, but she recognized the magic in the air as the old layer that clung to his bull form. Whatever had enchanted him lived in the glass valley. From what Madara said, it sounded like he needed to defeat whatever it was that had cursed him in order to be as human as his brothers again.

“Madara,” She whined, tears making her vision blur. “Don’t lose, please.” 

He bent low and ushered her onto his back again, even as she cried and sniffed at her blotchy face. “I won’t. I can’t lose this time since you love me.” 

“When-wh-when did I ever say something like that?”

“You didn’t.”

Sakura didn’t respond, knowing there was no reason to. After their months together, she couldn't deny the truth of it that made a nest inside her heart. While soulmates were less of a science and more of an art, Sakura knew that her heart was warm for Madara and she cared for him more dearly than any of her family or friends. Maybe she didn’t love him as a wife loved a husband, but she didn’t think she needed to.

Madara carried her to the base of the valley and set her under a glass tree. “Stay here and do not move otherwise I won’t be able to find you once I am done.” 

“I’ll wait,” Sakura promised. 

He nuzzled the side of her face gently, careful of his horns and where they could hurt her. When he pulled away the red of his eyes were bright and spinning wildly. There was no more time to say anything as he was turned away and racing across the glass hills, his onyx hooves carrying him ten steps in a single stride. 

Sakura stayed at the base of the tree and waited. 

And waited. 

In the distance there was thunder in a clear sky, echoing from somewhere on the other side of the glass mountain. It continued on for hours until the sky cracked with a noise that shook the whole valley. Sakura stumbled in place, grabbing for the tree to keep herself steady, but the crack was followed by an aftershock that shattered the tree under her hand and sent her tumbling over the glass shards. 

Sakura screamed, stung by the way shards cut across her hands and face, but more upset by the fact she had moved. She pulled herself up and staggered over the glass ruins to the place where she once stood...or thought where she once stood. 

Her hands hurt and her cheek throbbed, but she waited.

Night fell and she waited. 

Her body shivered in the cold but she waited.

The sun rose on the silent valley and she waited.

And waited.

And waited…

and

waited

...

* * *

Ching

It was a week later when she found the first living soul in the alley of glass. He was a hunched looking man covered in soot and leather. He raised his hammer over the anvil and pounded away at something metal under his tongs. 

Ching

“Who are you?” Sakura asked.

“Silly question, girl, can’t you see I’m a blacksmith?”

Ching

“I didn’t ask what you did, I asked who are you.”

“Don’t make no difference,” he answered without looking up. He hammered with a singular focus that didn’t even deviate to see who he was talking to. 

Ching

“How do I get out of the glass valley?” she asked instead.

“Over the glass mountain there,” he called back.

Ching.

Sakura sighed in exasperation, already having expected such an answer. “That’s what I thought at first, but I can't climb that. It’s made out of glass, I just slid off. There’s no way to scale it without help. How did others get out of here?”

“With help.”

Ching. 

Sakura fingered one of the jeweled fruit in her bag. “Will you help me? I can pay you.” 

“I don’t have a use for money,” he cackled. With a mighty swing he brought down his hammer and then pulled back, lifting the metal with his tongs to see his handiwork. The ringing sound echoed far off but before he was done admiring his work the far off echoes abated. 

“Please, I need to get out of here. I think something terrible happened to my friend because he didn’t come back for me. I don’t know if he’s even alive or dead.” Sakura grabbed at her skirts and fisted the useless material under her hands.

“What makes you think he’s dead?”

“He...didn’t come for me?” 

“Did ya move?”

Sakura flushed with shame. She had moved, but only a little ways. He still should have been able to see her. The tree had shattered but she was waiting around its ruins for days without sight or word. When her water ran out she knew she needed to move so she could live and mourn for her Madara another day.

“I didn’t move far. I never saw him again.”

“You wouldn’t. Some big old black monster came down ‘ere a week ago and fought with the demon earl to killed it. He left soon after, as the laws of this land demand. If you had stayed still he could have claimed you and brought you out, but that’s not how it happened, eh?”

Sakura’s heart hurt, her feet hurt, her stomach hurt, and her face hurt. She was more agony than girl but she still forced her words out. “Blacksmith... help me. Name your price.” 

“Seven years.”

She blinked, confused. “Wh-what?”

“I need another set of hands to work for me for seven years. After seven years I’ll make you the iron shoes you need to escape from this place.” He finally turned to look at Sakura and she could see the color of his eyes was milky white. His face was horribly scarred on one side and it looked like one eye lid had been cut open many years ago and left to fester. He was horrible to behold but Sakura had lost her stomach for horror, so she didn’t flinch.

“What do you need me to do?” 

* * *

It had taken years, but Sakura had milked his name from the old blacksmith and delighted in using it any chance she got, if only to see the way it flustered and unsettled him.

“Obito, are you sure you don’t need more ore from the mines?” Sakura teased from the doorway to his shop. 

The blacksmith looked up and glared without truly seeing. As blind as he was he was as agile as a bat in the dark all hours of the day. In his hands he balled up the dirty cloth and threw it at her, hitting her in the chest harmlessly. 

“That was quite uncalled for, Obito.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m sorry you’re in such a foul mood today, Obito.” 

“Go back to calling me master or blacksmith,” he complained, flushing from the attention. “What happened to your hammer, I don’t see it anywhere.”

“It had guts on it so I left it outside to clean,” Sakura answered easily, stepping down into the shop from the house built alongside it. “I told you there were more imps under the pass.”

“They’re not violent unless provoked.”

“Funny how stealing their rocks constitutes as provking in their book but not yours, blacksmith,” Sakura grumbled. 

“You can wait until they leave and _then_ harvest the materials.” 

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Or I can just smash them with my hammer and scatter their guts as a warning. You seem to like forgetting I’m not a frail old cripple that can’t move.” 

“You’re insufferable is what you are. Fine, provoke the dark dwelling things and see if I care when you don’t come back to finish our bargain.” 

“You would miss me too much, old man.”

“I’d miss your ore deliveries and your strong back, now shut up and stoke the fire, I’m melting down the chips today.”

Sakura’s posture shifted as she looked to the furnace and then to the paper tied up around a brick shape. She had seen her master toil for days over the last few chips, making it one of his longer projects to get started. “You finished assembling the pieces at last?”

“I did this morning,” Obito huffed. “Now I just need another set of hands. Are you ready?” 

It wasn’t really a question. 

Sakura reached for her gloves and set up alongside her master to support him as he maneuvered the brick of metal chips into the fire she stoked. 

The wet paper and twine burned away but the metal chips melted into each other, molding themselves into a solid brick that could be pulled out and hammered into shape by Sakura while Obito guided the direction of her strikes, shaping the metal in the way his vision demanded. He pulled it away and Sakura hurried to coat the brick in iron rich dirt and mud before Obito thrust it back into the fire. Sakura fed the flames and pumped more air into the furnace chamber to keep the heat sweltering. 

They repeated the same process, Sakura hurrying to satisfy the more labor intensive elements of the smelting process while Obito directed her to his vision. 

It took only a couple of days before they were ready to fold the steel. Sakura took her ax to the brick and Obito held it in place where he wanted it. Sakura swung down on the dull head of the ax that bit into the red hot brick of metal, cutting down to the last layer before Obito pulled out the ax and folded the metal under itself to make a thicker, shorter layer. 

“Water,” Obito barked with the brick needed to be cooled and cleaned.

Sakura was quick to filter the water where he directed it and together they folded the steel for several days until it was the shape Obito needed.

“I need another day before I combine the hard and soft steel for this,” he told her when dinner time came. 

Sakura offered him some more of her food when she saw he hadn’t touched any of his own, but he remained impassive, lost to his own thoughts until Sakura called him by name and told him to eat before she wiped out what was left of his poultry collection. 

“What do you need a sword for, anyway?” I never see you use any of the weapons you forge aside from the daggers you gave me.”

Obito grumbled. “Some men get cursed and turned into pigs and bulls, others are enslaved to labor for the rest of time until a day when the armies of men should need the weapons of hell.”

“Poetic,” Sakura teased without mirth.

Her heart hurt whenever Madara was mentioned, indirectly or not. She had labored four long years, and her fifth was nearly upon her. It had gone so fast but also lasted forever. 

“You should train with the sword, least it turn from poor use. Each morning for one hour you will swing my swords into shape.”

Sakura groaned loudly. “That’s not even a real thing!”

“Two hours.”

“ _Master_!”

* * *

One day Sakura came home to find the shop a mess and her master on the ground, legs folded, posture defeated. His sacred tools that he usually treated so preciously were haphazardly cast across the floor.

“Master?” Today was not a day she could get away with teasing him. 

When Obito didn’t answer her Sakura ventured into the shop and found a pair of iron shoes on the anvil. She took the first one in hand and turned them over, recognizing the design but not the craftsmanship. The prongs at the bottom were bent and uneven and the size was all off. 

“I still have six months left to our bargine and this doesn’t look like your usual work.” 

“They’re not for you, girl,” he rasped, sounding sore and old.

“I’m not a girl anymore but I am the only other living thing in this valley that isn’t a demon or a monster so who else would they be fo-”

Sakura’s words fell apart in her throat as she realized why the size was all off. They were too large for a woman’s shoe, but just the right size for a man’s.

Gently, Sakura knelt down beside her master with the shoes in hand and waited a moment more before calling softly to him, letting him know she was there. “Master? I didn’t know you wanted to leave the valley.” 

“I _can’t_ ,” Obito rasped. His hand shook but he reached for the shoe and took it to cradle between his wrinkled fingers. “Anytime I try to make something for myself…. _this_ is what happens.” 

In anger he threw the shoe and the far wall and screamed. 

She reached for Obito and pulled him closer, resting his scarred face on her shoulder. Under all his scars she could see the lines of age and how wrinkled of an old man he really was under all the sass and bravado. She had worked under him for six and half years but he had worked in the glass valley for far, far longer. In six months she would be free but then Obito would be alone again, stuck forever in his prison. 

“Don’t think about it,” he rasped into her shoulder. “You’re not staying here with me. My nephew is still waiting for you.” 

It hurt to think about Madara but Sakura forced her heart to still long enough to choke the words out. “I don’t know if he even remembers me. If his curse is broken he’s already moved on, no doubt. I’ve seen what Uchiha men look like, someone would have fallen in love with him by now.” 

“Stupid girl,” Obito rasped, smacking the side of her head. “As if a soulmate forgets so easily. Were you always this dim or did the mine fumes rot your brain again.”

Sakura bit back her smile and looked away. “You’ve been drinking again so I wouldn’t expect you to understand common sense you old drunk goat.”

“It was one bottle.” 

“Obito that wasn’t a bottle you left in the kitchen, it was a jug, those are bigger.” 

“It was one container and it didn’t even make my hands shake!” 

“You know that’s not what happens when you get drunk.” 

“I’m not drunk now!”

“Well you stink now, which is worse. So get up and go clean the piss off your pants and wash up for dinner, old man. I’ll make something with meat.”

Obito sneered, ignoring the comment about pissing himself even if he tried to discreetly check. “Where did ‘ya get the meat from this time? I’m sick of rats and rats with wings.”

“You said you loved when I made bat!”

“I said I loved it like a hole in the head!” he yelled back over his shoulder as he hobbled off to clean up for dinner. 

He noticed the fish she had caught in the kitchen and shouted back something about glass trout even though you both knew it had been years since you made the mistake of catching and killing your food during the day where the sunlight could enchant anything in the valley to glass. Sakura’s magic and Obito’s curse were the only reason they weren't pretty chandeliers themselves. Everything Sakura hunted came from underground in the mines or under the mountain. 

Before she prepared the fish Sakura took Obito’s iron shoes and folded them up into a box out of the way and tended to his tools. 

* * *

Sakura knew it was the day her debt was over when she woke up and found new clothes laid out on the chair by her bed. She dressed in the supple leather of cave wolf and fit the half cloak over her shoulder, hiding her non-dominate side and showing off the belt where her short sword and dagger hung.

Obito called her to breakfast and she ate gladly the burned bread and eggs he made for her. 

“You look perfect,” he told her softly in the doorway to his shop.

“You’re blind.”

“And thus at liberty to make such statements without consequence,” he cackled reaching to pinch her cheek. “But if you’re wearing one of my swords I know you look perfect. Who cares about your face?” 

“Obito,” she groaned. 

He didn’t seem as bothered by the sound of his name anymore. 

“Come on, I’ve got something to give you.” 

She followed him down into the shop and on his work bench sat a pair of delicate iron shoes that would fit over her boots when she attempted to climb the mountain. He touched them and then reached for her belt, touching the sword he had gifted her two years ago. 

“Do not...forget this,” he whispered to her, sounding far too old and tired. 

Sakura rested one of her hands over his, tilting the hilt of her sword enough so that he could feel it better. “I won’t forget what you taught me either.” 

“You’re stronger than most men now, but don’t be as stupid as any of them. The magic of the valley should let you leave if these shoes came out as well as they did. If not, come back and I’ll make them again, every day until it works.”

“It’ll work.”

Obito’s lip trembled. “Save him?” 

Sakura didn’t ask who he was talking about, she just pulled the old man closer and kissed his scarred and wrinkled cheek. “I will.” 

He didn’t watch her go, but Sakura knew Obito listened for as long as he could, perched at the edge of his shop, face turned away. 

Sakura took a pack with her things, remembering the jeweled fruit and bloody shoes from her girlhood even if she only carried the fruit with her so many years later. 

She made it to the base of the glass mountain and fitted the iron shoes into place, wincing at how they pinched. Once she started her climb she was thankful for their pinching, as they kept her from sliding down again. It took close to half a day with breaks in between to rest on the numerous plateaus, but eventually she reached the summit and pulled herself up the rest of the way. 

Unlike mountains she had seen in the past, this one became a seemingly undisturbed lake of flatland for her to walk across instead of a downward slope. 

Magic rippled the air and Sakura tensed, ready for her journey to not be over. 

She unclipped her iron shoes and belted them at her side, determined to save them after working so many years for them. As the iron clasp closed around her belt loop she felt the change. She turned and saw emptiness atop the glass surface while underneath a figure stalked. 

_“Do not...forget this,” he whispered to her_.

Sakura swept back her arm under the cloak and drew her sword free with the other, making her stance ready as the reflection creature drew closer. At the sight of her sword it paused, but with a snarl the demon stalked forward again, shifting until its skin turned gray and the horns around his head doubled. 

When it swiped at her Sakura swung at the air, and her reflection followed her movements, cutting at the demon under the glass. It screamed and howled in pain, bleeding from its face where she had split open his eye. 

She didn’t let it retreat far but thrust out her free palm, bending her fingers back and pooling her magic there at the tip. “ _Igni_!” and then a light and a beam shot out, burning the air and catching the demon as it stumbled. 

Like all the things that dwelled in the dark it screeched at the light but fire didn’t damage it as much as she would hope. At most it seemed to only disrupt his focus. When it recovered only one eye glowed gold with malice. Its skin started to pebble and peel in places, like a snake getting ready to shed. 

Sakura screamed and turned into an attack, missing it’s body but driving it back. It clawed at her blade, sending sparks into the air beneath the surface. Sakura pressed forward, swinging with all the strength that came from seven years behind a hammer and ax. She moved with the speed from seven years skulking through the darkness where monsters slept. She turned with all the grace of a girl who had aged into a woman in a world bound up by magic. 

When she swung her sword it rang out, cutting the air with a whistle that sounded like three parts Obito’s magic, the magic of the glass valley, and hers. She gathered it all up into her hands and fed it into her blade and free fingers when the demon ran at her again. 

She burned with fury at the sight of it. 

“ _Fus_!” and with a thrust of her free hand a force of energy and wind made the demon stumble back, tripping over its own heels.

It twisted to stand again but Sakura had her dagger in hand and drove it down into its skull between its horns, turning the glass black and red and disrupting the reflection and ending the magic between one layer and the other. 

Sakura shook, falling back onto her rump. Her sword tumbled out of her hand and she let her head fall back to rest atop the glass. All over she was nerves on fire with old magics and new alike running through her. 

She felt sick.

“Fuck,” she whispered aloud before turning over enough to retch without choking on her own vomit. 

* * *

Sakura found a village after a day and a half of travel and they spared her some water and food for her story and the silver shards she had in her purse from the mines. 

When they asked what she would do next or how she would find her ‘destined one’ she simply requested a sheet of paper, something someone had to run out and get since the town was a simple one. 

By the time the boy had brought back the paper Sakura had the incantation ready. With a pin prick of blood to trace over the edges she folded the paper into a bird and then pulled it out so the wings would flap with a spare wind. Konan’s magic was unfamiliar but not so much that she couldn’t use it after years and years apart. It was a good thing Konan married rich since her special magic was such an expensive one. 

“Fine him for me,” she whispered to the paper before carrying it to the door. 

The village watched with bated breath as Sakura closed her eyes, whispered in the old language of a hundred million words, and blew out, sending the paper bird stuttering off her fingertips. 

A stray wind picked up and the bird was caught up into it before turning over and screeching, flapping feathered wings and turning his scarlet colored head in the direction of a far off country. The people clamored out loud as Sakura took for herself a horse, leaving behind a payment of gold nuggets from another mine in the glass valley.

The bird flew for days and Sakura had to trade one horse for another several times over in the places she stopped in, but the bird never flew too far for her to lose. 

They traveled past the forests and the mountains and the ports until a new land opened up for Sakura, one where the ruins dotted the grass hills every half mile. The road grew thick with merchants, pilgrims, and travelers who were heading towards the empire at the heart of the world.

Sakura heard from the women she settled in with about their king who came to dethrone a rotting regent seven years go and transform the valley of ruins into something far more thriving. 

Sakura dared to dream as she bedded down for the night. 

“Welcome to Norroway, girlie.” 

She traded her horse for food and slept in the back of the soothsayer’s wagon while it rattled into the city to make a living. 

Getting into the city was the easy party. Getting to Madara who was a king of a thriving society, was the hard part. Strolling up to ask for an audience was out of the question since she wasn’t a citizen, and working in the castle was reserved for families who had ties to the old kingdom-something Sakura still didn’t understand after having an official spell it out for her the second time. Something about her blood not being blue enough. 

“If you’re looking for work as a mercenary the guilds are in the south quarter, but if you are willing to enlist, recruitment offices are further down this road in the military district,” the pompous little official explained, eyeing her sword and the scars on her hands from years of toil. Even under her cloak and in armor it was impossible to hide the size of her muscles. 

She barely looked like a woman to him. 

“I’ll...take that into consideration.” 

Sakura left and called back the scarlet headed bird to rest on her shoulder while she drifted through the streets of Norroway with the last of her silver pieces. There were red and black tasperties draped at every corner, sark against the bright white of most of the buildings and roads. Everything in the city around the castle seemed so pristine in direct contrast to the ruins dotting the landscape leading up to Norroway.

The city was bustling with people that made business good for the butcher and the soothsayer alike.

Speaking of which... 

“Stupid of you to only ask about brute force work,” Shizune chastised her when Sakura made it back to her cart. “You’ve got magic so ask for a position as a court mage or palace keeper.”

“Can’t, those are ‘citizen privilege’ positions. I’m not blue enough for them,” Sakura complained. 

Shizune the soothsayer waved her hand dismissively. “Sure, officially it will be like that, but you know how often those old fools are unable to do what’s asked of them. They subcontract their jobs and responsibilities out all the time. I’ve picked up a dream interpretation once or twice myself. I’ll ask one of my girls to introduce you tomorrow morning.”

Sakura fed her sparrow and thanked the old woman before falling asleep in the back of her wagon, staring up through the cracks in the ceiling to see the kingdom’s flag flapping in a soft breeze. The crest of a black bull’s head on a red background with small white flowers encircling his neck winked down at her. 

She fell asleep with her hand in her pocket, grabbing at the jeweled fruits from Madara’s brothers. 

In the morning there was a mousy looking girl at the cart ready to show Sakura down to the mage quarter, sneaking her in through the shadows least their shameful incompetence be made known to the public. 

Sakura wouldn’t be brought to the main palace but one of the side buildings where the mages all lived. There was no chance she would run into Madara herself, but according to the mousy girl it sounded like their king rarely showed himself to the people he employed, even his own mages.

“So what is it you need help with?” Sakura asked. 

The girl, Tenten, huffed in frustration before pulling Sakura into another side room before turning to close the door behind them and listen. When the footsteps passed she nodded to Sakura and led her into what smelled like the laundry room. 

“The king was out on a campaign for the last month or so, but he came back with his shirts all bloody like one does, yah?” When Sakura nodded Tenten went on. “And instead of just throwing them out, he wanted them washed. Easy?”

“No?” Sakura slowly shook her head as Tenten became more agitated.

“Of course not. Bloody as they are even _servants_ can get the stains out so long as there ain’t no other foul magic layered on top. Well that’s what it was, and us mages are in the doghouse until we can clean his bloody shirts.”

“Why not just throw them out?” Sakura asked, reaching to untie her bracers. 

“That’s what I wondered,” Tenten snorted. “He’s a funny king sometimes.”

“Funny how?”

Tenten shrugged and stopped in front of a vat of warm water bubbling with soap. The two shirts sat on the rim, half submerged. The bloodstains were vivid against the white fabric. 

“Payment?” Sakura inquired, hoping there was room to negotiate.

“Same as the others, little bird. Ten marks.”

“And you’ll consider me in the future when you run into... similar problems?” Sakura pressed. 

That made the other girl snort. “Lets see how you do with this first, birdie. Do the impossible and then we can talk.” 

With her bit done, Tenten slipped away and left Sakura alone with the two shirts. Sakura picked up one and sniffed at the collar, recognizing Madara’s smell. Even as a bull he had smelled like a man and the scent stayed with him post transformation. 

“Someone was a damn fool to try and curse him with a blood letting spell. Those are nasy but simple to break,” she murmured out loud. 

Sakura submerged the first shirt and pricked her finger under the water. It turned the basin red and when she removed the first shirt it came out perfect, both free of blood and stains as well as wrinkles. 

Sakuar hung it up where Tenten was sure to see it and left for the day. 

The following morning Tenten was back at Shizune’s knocking on the door frantically. Sakura answered it with a yawn only to have a small pouch of ten marks shoved onto her lap. “The other one!” was all Tenten hissed. 

Sakura made a show of looking over the coins before dumping them into her own money bag tied round her hip. “How did I do?”

The girl’s eyes were wide and frantic. “Well enough that I’ve got some attention now. I need the other shirt clean. You can do it, can’t you?”

“I can, for the right price.” From her shoulder the scarlet headed sparrow chirped encouragingly with his wings out. 

“Twenty marks then.”

“I don’t want the money. I want to see the king.” 

The request made Tenten’s eyes boggle. “You’re way too powerful for me to allow that. You’ll-h-how do I know you don’t want to kill him? What if you’re an assassin? You’re not even a citizen of Norroway. I’d get expelled or fired or worse, executed for such a thing!” 

“I’m not asking for a private tea date, I just...want to see him. He comes out in public sometimes, doesn’t he? Make sure I’m there.”

Tenten glanced down at the sword Sakura wore and then swallowed. “Can you use that?” 

“If I have to.” 

“A...a tourney. I can get you a spot on the ground floor at the next tourney. He’s always there in his box to watch the fighters. He’ll see you. Is that good enough.” 

Sakura grinned wide and flipped her body out of the cart, landing perfectly on her feet outside. “That sounds just _perfect_.” 

* * *

Sakura got plenty of stares as the lone female on the ground floor of the tourney. There were a couple of mounted lady knights, but those who fought on the floor, or in the pit, were typically more weathered fighters. It wasn’t uncommon for swords to be discarded at some point and naked fists used to finish the match. 

After years of hard labor in the forge and wrestling monsters in the dark for dinner, that was just fine for Sakura.

“The old man looks a little tipped, eh?” one of the fighters joked, pointing to a wrinkled noble who was already sloshed in his booth. 

“He’s always tipped,” the other knight sighed before eyeing Sakura, noticing her stare. He pushed back against his friend and crossed the room to meet her. “I’m Neji, of the Hyuga house, I don’t recognize your face or your sword.” 

Before she could answer the blond pushed forward, thrusting out his hand first. “And I’m Naruto, the Uzumaki heir. Lemme meet ya first and say you’re sorta too pretty to be fighting with us.” 

Sakura hesitated but returned Naruto’s handshake before dropping it to shake Neji’s. “I’m Sakura Haruno, I’m a foreigner with no noble house to take note of.” 

“Your sword is of foreign make?” Neji inquired, watching it keenly.

“Aye, I had a hand in its forging myself.”

“Are you here then to advertise for your guild master?” Neji asked. 

“No, he’s...my master is far from here and he doesn’t exactly make a business out of his art. I’m just here to show off and have fun.” 

Naruto laughed at her words while Neji seemed a bit put off, but neither seemed offended enough to leave her side while the first parts of the tourney played out. 

There was archery and marksmanship challenges and then mounted events. During the last third of the tourney, before the actors and the bards came out, the ground fighters filtered out in sets of two. 

Sakura paired up against a brunet knight with red marks on his face and a toothy smile. There were six other fighters staring down their opponents in their own fighting circles. Once the flag dropped four sets of fighters would try to push their opponent out of the ring and then advance to the next circle until they were the only one left. The first circle was the tightest and most challenging, while the last circle made up the majority of the field. 

Sakura drew her sword slowly, glancing up to the boxes and frowning when she couldn’t see inside them from where she stood. She’d have to advance to the last and final round if she wanted to see Madara from the field. 

“Start!”

Sakura snapped her head back just in time to catch Kiba’s sword with her own and parry it. There was the grind of metal on metal and Sakura cursed her ban on magic, knowing it would be so much easier if she could just torch him like a mole rat at close range. 

But Obito had folded her into the shape of a survivor over years with steel and sweat, so she pushed back and advanced on her opponent with wild strikes he could barely catch until he was at the edge of the ring. At that point, Sakura didn’t care for her sword anymore as she reached up to kick him in the chest out of the circle and against the wall. 

She advanced to the second circle where Naruto was already waiting for her. He blushed and looked away, nearly dropping his sword for how lax he held it. 

“Um, be-before we fight can I say your hair is really pretty in those braids and I’m sorry?” he asked with a blush on his cheeks. 

“Sorry Naruto, but I’m already promised to someone else,” Sakura laughed, waving her sword. 

“Eh, it’s still true,” he laughed before charging. 

Another round later and Sakura was staggering into the central ring with Neji, bruised and winded. Across from her the young noble looked a tab better. His long brown hair was braided down his back and still in one piece. Sakura knew her crown braid was fraying and fuzzy around her head. It would be a while before she could stop to fix it-not that she wanted to.

She looked up to the stands, heart hammering in her chest as she was finally in position to see who sat in the royal boxes. 

She nearly froze when she saw Madara. 

She had never seen him as a human, but the red pinwheel of his eyes was unmistakable. His golden crown was styled with two pairs of curling horns that guarded either side of his jaw and curled backwards over his skull. His gaze was glassy and distant while the woman draped across his chest stared down at Sakura with a cunning smile and bright, gold snake eyes. 

Sakura didn’t see the attack but reached for Neji’s wrist on a reflex from too many days training in the dark. Neji stumbled with his wrist in her hand and she shook him until his sword dropped. She threw her own into the sand and shoved at him, too angry to wield a blade. 

“Sakura?” Neji called out, too confused to remember they were enemies. 

Sakura grabbed at his chest, hands under his arms and one foot behind his heel. He flipped like a child and Sakura took advantage of that. Neji was deadly with a blade and as fast as a thought but Sakura was stronger. Unarmed, she had the advantage. 

At one point he was up again, trying to reach for her but she flipped him first and then caught his ankle to drag him through the dirt. The crowd was wild with frenzy as Sakura ran to the edge of the rink, ready to chuck Neji into the stands with all her rage. She thought she heard Naruto’s voice screaming loudest. 

Neji twisted out of her hold and kicked her in the side, sending her onto her knees. But the time she flipped around Neji had recovered and had his sword back in hand, raising it up over his head to bring down on her arm in a wounding blow. 

Sakura reached up and slapped Neji’s sword with her bare hands, pinning it between her palms and stoping his strike. With anger and rage and seven years of toiling Sakura swatted his blade to the side and used the momentum to rise and slap him across the face and then grab at his arm and pulled him hard. He fell and Sakura didn’t let him hit the sand until she was done spinning his body around. He rolled out of the rink and impacted with the wall with a dull thud. 

Sakura fell backwards on her heels and the crowd bloomed with new cheers, absolutely wild for her victory-a _girl_ from nowhere with an unknown name and a fancy sword had bested not one but three noble lords. 

Ladies tossed roses and lace handkerchiefs while boys tossed flowers and coins. 

The jesters came out to collect the prizes and one of them offered it to Sakura in a small bag while the others assembled behind her to sing. One was already strumming his lute and regaling the crowd with a song he put together on the spot. One of the girls dressed in the king’s colors came to Sakura to kiss on the cheek and parade around the rink while the masses cheered. Some tried to reach for her and others cursed her out for their lot in a lost bet. 

Sakura looked back and felt her heart break at the lost look in Madara’s eyes. He didn’t look her way or react to anything. Only the woman on his arm seemed to see Sakura’s stare for what it was.

“Who is that?” Sakura asked the maid on her arm.

The girl looked up to the stands and noticed. “Oh, princess Hebi? King Madara brought her back from his last conquest and they’re to be married this week. Didn’t you know? This was the tourney to celebrate their wedding.” 

Sakura numbly stumbled into the center of the field where she was urged to wave to the crowd while the bard sang behind her. The music ended and they loudly bickered for the crowd what they would sing next when Sakura reached out to the lead bard. 

“I want to sing something…for my victory, please,” she said in a voice that was stronger than her knees. 

“Excellent!” someone exclaimed while another giggled in her ear. They asked what it was she wanted to sing and how could they accompany her. 

“Just four lines, a standard melody, please.”

“Boring but easy,” one of them laughed before plucking out the right notes on his lute. 

The crowd still rumbled with muted delight, but when Sakura stepped up to face the boxes and their king the area grew quiet. Sakura dug into herself, deep where her magic pooled and pulled it out into her voice, making it a boom the last child in the furthest seat could hear. 

_“Seven long years I served for thee. The glassy hill I clamb for thee. Thy bloody clothes I wrang for thee; And wilt thou not waken and turn to me?"_

Sakura’s voice caught on a hum to match the notes as the bards improvised and then she sang again, the same four lines. 

_“Please oh please, turn to me, turn to me…”_

But Madara didn’t so much as blink her way. Instead queen Hebi loudly thanked the ‘noble knight’ for his performance before insisting he be treated to; the best meal and ale outside the arena.’

That’s how Sakura got ushered out of the pits and back into an armory. 

She drifted a little after that, angry and depressed. She had sang with magic and her soulmate hadn’t even acknowledged her. What sort of magic did that lady have that kept him from seeing Sakura?

“I haven’t toiled for seven long years, missing you to give up now,” Sakura swore into the stone before pushing off and heading back to the observation decks. 

“Give up what?” 

Sakura turned when she heard Naruto’s voice, but behind her there was also Neji and another two men she recognized from the match. One was the man, Kiba, she beat in the first round and another was a boy with badly cut black hair and a bruise on his jaw from Naruto’s match. 

Neji pushed forward and grabbed at her shoulder. “I owe you an ale at least.” 

* * *

The wedding was strictly by invitation only and while her new friends could get her an invitation to their seats, none of them had any idea what to do about ‘princess Hebi’ a character no one seemed to like or trust.

“It would make sense if she’s a _snake_ enchanting him,” Sakura sighed, remembering the yellow eyed demon she fought and killed atop the glass mountain. One of her hands played with the jeweled fruits in her pocket, worrying over their edges with her fingers.

“I thought Madara was an Uchiha and immune to enchantments,” Kiba asked, rubbing at his jaw while he lounged on the bench in front of their table in Neji’s quarters. No one would interrupt the Hyuga clan heir while he was conducting business. 

“Uchiha aren’t impervious, just...better at resisting such things. There’s a reason he was cursed into a bull in the first place,” Sakura answered. 

“Wait, that was for real? He was really a bull?” Naruto gasped. 

Kiba snorted and Neji winced. “Naruto, how old are you?” Sakura asked, tone wary. 

“I’m sixteen, why?”

Sakura nearly choked on her ale. “Oh no, I’m planning treason with a child.” the thought spoken aloud made her stiffen and turn to the other two. “Wait, how old are the rest of you?” 

Rock Lee jumped up first, “Neji and I am both twenty summers my lady and lords in our own rights.”

Kiba lifted his hand. “I’m only two years older than Naruto. He’s the baby but he’s big for his age.”

“Hey, don’t make it sound like I’m a kid!” Naruto exclaimed. 

“I’m so sorry I hit you,” Sakura gasped, remembering their fight. “Are you okay. You’re not still sore, are you? What did you mom say? Oh I bet she hates me.”

Kiba failed to hide his snickers behind his fist while Neji smiled privately, leaving Rock Lee to nod along with Sakura’s teasings as if they were completely legit concerns. 

“That is quite all right, as I’ve seen the good lady toss her son herself off a bridge before for unflattering remarks,” Rock Lee interjected, prompting Naruto sputter and color in embarrassment. 

“Yeah, well new plan because I don’t want to endanger a child,” Sakura said, tone forcefully neutral to keep the teasing going. 

“Sakura, no! I’m an adult, an adult, I can do this with you! Didn’t you see me win my first fight in the matches. Please don’t leave me out, I wanna help save the kingdom from an evil snake princess.” 

“He’s very loud, we could use him as a distraction if nothing else,” Neji offered, expression carefully neutral while Kiba sank further into his seat, a pillow over his face to hide his laughter. 

“It might come to that,” Sakura agreed.  
“Come on guys, quit playing me down, you know I’m a good fighter. It’s not like you’re talking about Kiba this way and he lost his first match. I at least won one!”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t your first opponent,” Sakura said, raising her horn of mead to make a point before knocking it all back. “But we’re getting off topic. I still don’t know how else to get to Madara through the enchantment.”

“We just gotta kill the snake lady, right?” Kiba asked, sitting up and wiping the laughter drool off his mouth.

“No weapons allowed in the great hall,” Neji stated.

“I don’t need weapons,” Sakura said. 

“What about the rest of us?” Kiba whined. 

Sakura refiled her horn and washed down her steak cut with more mead. “Practice grappling.” 

Kiba whistled low at her cool tone before propping his head up on his hand over the table. “Are you sure you’re spoken for. I kinda like getting talked down to.”

Neji’s carefully impassive face remained unchanged while Rock Lee and Naruto both blushed and flustered loudly about ‘reuniting true love’ and Kiba being a ‘nasty horn dog’ or something like that. Sakura finished her second horn then stared down at the bottom of it, realizing something. 

“He’s being drugged.”

The boys stopped fighting.

“What?” that was Neji.

“It’s the reason my magic wasn’t able to work on him. He’s ingested something non magical that makes him like that. It’s the only thing I can think of. Is...do you know who has access to what Madara drinks?”

“Just drinks, not meals too?” Naruto asked. 

“It’s easier to swallow in a liquid of it’s what I think it is. The nectar from a plant that has little gray bulbs that split into four petals. You can milk it to make sedatives straight up or mix it with other ingredients to create other drugs like the one that made Madara the way he is now.” Sakura was absently amazed with her memory from when Baba taught all her girls about the plants and flowers. Ino had been so much better at it than her. 

“Can you counteract it?” Neji asked. 

“I...can if I had the right ingredients.” Sakura bit her lip and pulled out the first of her three jeweled fruits. The golden pear sparkled in the light. “I am facing the first great need I think.”

Before anyone else could ask she cracked open the pear and held it over the table to watch as the star shaped seeds and bulbs spilled out. Neji leaned over while Naruto and Kiba both stood to better see what Rock Lee could. 

“Is that…”

“It’s enough to make the antidote,” Sakura breathed in relief. “But it has to be burned, not ingested.”

“Oh, guess who is best friends with the priest managing the thurible at the royal wedding,” Kiba chuckled, his grin sharp enough to cut a roguish picture that flipped Sakura’s gut in anticipation. 

“If that’s settled, then we can address the next major roadblock to this magnificent plan,” Rock Lee exclaimed. 

Naruto exchanged and look with Sakura before asking, “Which is...?” 

“Unless one of you is willing to admit to keeping a lady’s spare clothes in your closet that could pass as wedding attendance attire we still can’t get Sakura into the hall, never mind what we do with princess Hebi without weapons if she turns on us.” Rock Lee glanced between each of the boys before settling his gaze on Sakura with a look of apology. 

Sakura just reached for the second of her dazzling fruits and ran her thumb over the amaystist plumb from Itachi. “I think I can get myself in there. You get the antidote into the thurible to burn in front of Madara and I’ll take care of the rest.” 

* * *

Sakura hung back with Neji and used his spare room to dress in the morning the following day.

With her plumb cracked open spools of soft ivory silk tumbled free. Sakura reached for the dress and held it to her body, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the quality. With the dress came a pair of dainty shoes and a tiara of rose gold flowers she could weave into her hair. 

One of Neji’s servants came to help Sakura with her hair and a dusting of gold make up across her eye lids for luck and victory. 

Neji met her in the hall and escorted her to his own carriage with a nod of approval when she showed off her dress to him. “A bit modern but I’m sure that’s what all the fine ladies will be wearing next season,” he commented, ears flushing with color as he forced his eyes elsewhere. 

Outside, a sparrow with a scarlet head and short wings fluttered along, trailing after Sakura and her carriage. 

The way to the castle was busy, but people parted for Neji and his carriage until they were at the front of a long line where the valets opened doors to escort the nobility and rich down their steps. Neji offered Sakura his arm in place of the valet once he was out and Sakura clung to him, too nervous of making a mistake and blowing her cover.

Neji bent down to whisper in her ear as they made their way inside, following the sound of the organ playing wedding songs. “You’ll be fine, they’re only staring because you’re beautiful.” 

“I thought I looked too much like a man,” Sakura whispered back.

“That’s just because of the armor. You really think a lady with pink hair and a flower crown would look like a man anywhere in a dress?”

The joke was enough to make her laugh as the organ music swelled too loud to whisper through. Neji’s seats were on the groom’s side due to his family’s close ties to the Uchiha house, but the only people actually in attendance for Princess Hebi were a few loyal subjects from her ‘once ravaged’ kingdom to the west no one had ever heard about, so Rock Lee and Kiba were situated on that side of the aisle looking miserable as ever. Naruto sat a few rows behind them and Sakura could turn to look over her shoulder and spot where Naruto sat next to a man who could have been his older twin and a red haired woman dressed in red fox furs. 

The head priest, a man named Shino, walked up and down the outermost aisles before standing at the back with the other heads of church, ready to welcome their king and future queen the wedding lane. 

Sakura inhaled sharply and smelled the familiar spices burning in the air. 

Now only one more element was left to fulfill their plan.

“Please,” she whispered under her breath, hands clasped and eyes shut.

The music cut out and everyone turned to stand and face the back. The King walked with Princess hebi on his arm. One step at a time the pair made their way down the walkway behind Shino and the other priests. 

Sakura watched, heart hammering like a hummingbird behind her ribs as Madara approached her section and then past it to stand up at the altar behind Shino, looking just as lost as before. 

“Please,” she whispered under her breath again, feeling too sick to move. Neji reached for her hand and squeezed it in encouragement. When Shino bid them sit he pulled her down beside him, keeping her hand in his. 

“Kneel and swear your fealty to one another,” the loud voice of the head priest boomed through the hall. A cup was produced that they both drank from and dipped bread into before exchanging pieces over familiar vows. With every utterance Sakura’s heart felt like it was breaking. 

Why wasn’t the antidote working. 

“I swear to you my king,” the princess intoned smugly. 

“And I swear to you...my…” Madara blinked and shook his head. The room rippled with a whisper of worry when Madara grabbed for his head. 

“Majesty?” Shino called out. 

“The vow,” Princess Hebi interjected. “Finish your vows my king.”

Sakura’s heart leapt in her chest. 

“Vow...what...what vow are you...why…” Madara pulled away from her and stood. “What is this?” 

Princess Hebi stood off the steps and reached for him but Madara pulled away, glaring at her hand. “You’re confused my dear,” she tried again, eyes flashing gold with magic. 

“I am...confused…?” Madara dully repeated. He shook his head and pulled away again. “No… I am… not supposed to be here. Where…”

“He’s sick. The wedding has stressed him to this point. Hurry, finish our vows priest so he may rest,” Princess Hebi urged. 

But Shino pretended not to hear her and instead turned to his priests to get a healer out for their king. Madara stumbled back down the aisle and a few guests sat forward and stood, trying to see better. Some even called his name. 

Sakura stood and tried to move towards the edge, into the aisle but Neji caught her wrist to keep her back while he watched Princess Hebi. “Wait,” he urged with worry in his tone. 

The princess’ eyes were bright enough to light a dark room as she reached for Madara and grabbed his uniform’s military sash. Someone called out to her not to touch him but she already had her hands around his chest.

Madara started to sag in her hold, knees buckling. “Stop,” he gasped, bracing one hand against her throat. 

“He’s sick, someone help my husband!” the princess cried out. 

Sakura seethed, angry enough to throw Neji’s hold off her wrist and step out into the central walkway. “He’s not your husband, snake!” 

The princess dropped Madara onto his side where he lay, eyes blinking into focus. “I am the queen here, who are you to speak to me this way?”

Sakura pulled out the ruby apple and squeezed it in her dominant hand. With the other she bent her fingers and focused her magic into a point. Sakura’s emerald colored eyes were bright with magic as she seethed in an a now unshackled wrath.

“I’m his goddamn true love and you demon.” 

There was a burst as Sakura let the magic in her hand free. 

“ _Shatter_!”

The magic spell around Princess Hebi fell apart like a broken glass mirror and the snack in a wedding dress screamed in agony from the way her illusion burned away. Shino and someone else reached down to drag Madara away while whole rows of people ran for the doors. 

Sakura had killed demons and imps before. She had labored for too many years for one more to stand in her way. 

Sakura crushed the ruby apple in her hand and grabbed at the hilt of a sword that fell from it. She recognized the perfect weight of one of Obito’s blades and swung it the way he taught her to. 

“You bitch,” the demon hissed with wild, yellow eyes. 

“Time to die,” Sakura warned.

The demon surged and Sakura didn’t miss. She swung with seven years worth of labor behind her arms and carried the blade clear through the mouth, jaw, and skull of the snake demon, spraying black ichor onto the palace floors where it burned up into smoke, leaking not even the evidence of a stain behind. 

Before the body could regenerate Sakura held up her free hand and pointed. “ _Igni_ ,” and white blue fire shot out to consume the cursed body, turning green like Sakura’s magic upon contact. Sakura watched it burn, feeling the last lashes of anger as the body shriveled in the fire. 

“Sakura?”

She dropped her sword and turned at the sound of her name. 

He stood at the end of the aisle, hands empty, eyes clear. She saw his lips move and heard her name again. He wasn’t a bull anymore but she would recognize those eyes and that voice anywhere. 

“Madara.” 

He didn’t wait for her to move, but race for her, grabbing for her and picking her up into his arms, spinning her once then twice before falling to his knees with her, laughed too loudly to contain while Sakura cried. 

“Sakura!”

“Madara.” 

All the anger and hurt melted out of her as he pulled her closer and kissed. Her face, her eyes, her nose, her neck, her forehead, anything his lips could reach. “You’re real, you’re here,” he gasped with a wet voice that matched the tears in his eyes. “You’re alive.” 

“You remembered me,” Sakura laughed through her tears.

“Of course I remember you! I tried to bring you back, I tried to claim you in the glass valley but you-but it was a trick. They shook the world and I couldn’t take you with me once my spell was broken. They said you would die on your own but I didn’t believe them.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

Madara laughed and reached for her sword. “Apparently not. You grew up into quite the woman.” 

Sakura gasped and turned around in his lap, searching with her eyes for someone. “A-this is your wedding day, isn’t it?” Where is Shino, where’s the priest?”

“Sakura?”

She grabbed the front of his jacket and glared without real malice. “You were going to get married today to someone who isn’t your soulmate. Where’s that priest. I didn’t toil in that valley seven years to watch some other hussy move in on what’s mine,” she all but snarled through what was left of her tears. 

Her positiveness only made Madara laugh as he called Shino back-something that took several more minutes. 

“You’re mine,” Sakura whispered into his neck as he held and rocked her. “You promised.”

“I know, I know and I promise I’m yours, now and forever.” Madara looked up as Shino returned with the rings and one other priest. “I’m making this vow to you now, my queen, my soul and my heart. I’ll only ever be yours.” 

“And I’ll only ever be yours,” Sakura echoed. 

Madara took the rings meant for a fake union and fit the Kingdom’s gold band onto Sakura’s ring finger before gesturing for her to do the same with the Heaven’s band. 

“As is above so below, forever never let us part,” she vowed. 

“As above so below,” he echoed. 

Sakura reached for his face and kissed him deeply, melting under him after too many dreams and too many days without the one who owned her heart. Neither paid much mind to Shino who hurried to recite the rest of their vows while they got lost in each other. 

Neither noticed a red crested sparrow turn into paper and no one was there when Obito found the gift Sakura had crafted for him before she left.

The pair of lovers married in the light of a demon’s burning fire and ruled a kingdom that swelled to an empire to match their own growing brood of children. 

So their tale passed on into history and became a story for the faint of heart, a story of hope that people trusted less and believed in more, as is the nature with all good stories. 

**Author's Note:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  
> This was supposed to be like...3K  
> It was supposed to be short. I'm so tired. I finished this in one day. I hate myself. 
> 
> This is really rough, cause I just finished it and haven't given it a hard edit yet, but it's done in time. I don't get anything done in time unless someone holds my feet to the fire, lol. I'll get back to fixing this up in a bit. Pls just take this garbage fire from me.


End file.
